Enough Already

Oh dammit you guys. Come on. For the love of humanity. Snow. We woke up to snow, and that was terrible, but now it’s snowing again?!? Seriously, are you freakin’ kidding me?

I am done. Done, done, done. I’ve ranted about this sort of thing before. But I’m not just pissed off about the continued snow. My generally pissiness is tinged with guilt. I have a couple of tubing passes that we never got around to using. It’s almost time to return the girls’ rental skis. So, if I were a better person, a person with more energy, a gal with some vim, we’d be out there, trying to make the most of this last snowfall. And by “last” I mean, for the love of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, please let this be the last snowfall.

I just don’t wanna.I’m tired of embracing winter. We actually did a day trip of skiing at Bromley, and it was mostly very fun, except that toward the end, M lost one of her mittens. Which led to general family stress, of course. We checked out the store, but because she’s at that too-big-for-kids, awfully-small-for-grown-ups size, nothing fit too well and it was all too expensive, especially for something that doesn’t fit well. Then she refused to wear Cute W’s or my mittens. J had been going strong, and M’s enthusiasm had gone down the drain, and next thing you know we’d given up and left the girls to nosh on waffles while we grown-ups skied. The season went out with a whimper. And we still haven’t gotten around to buying new mittens, which I should probably do, but our enthusiasm is low. You know I hate to shop, anyway. But then, anytime I feel the slightest bit motivated to do something involving cold weather, I remember that we’re not properly outfitted yet. And then that tiny little smidgen of motivation just fades away entirely.

So, what do I want to do?

I want to walk around outside barefoot. I actually prefer to be barefoot as much as possible. I was never a slipper person, I work out barefoot or  barefoot style with Vibrams, and not having that option in the winter is so irritating. Just for things like running the recycling out or cooking on the grill (which incidentally, I had to stop doing because the grill was snowed in, but whatever), I am a barefoot girl late into the fall and early in the spring. I’ve actually run out barefoot a couple of times already this year. As you might guess, it was pretty freaking cold. But that’s lovely, too, because freezing my bare little piggies brings on these strong sense memories from when I was a kid. From 4th through 9th grade I lived next door to a nature preserve, and one of my springtime rituals was to go rambling in the woods and take off my shoes to do a quick wade in the creek very, very early in the season. The water was just-barely-melted snow and it would always be literally painful in its frigidity, and I was sure that my mom would be appalled if she saw me without shoes, much less ankle-deep in ice water. So there was the sweetness of doing something illicit along with the joy of impending spring to make it a magic little treat each early spring. And now, running out to pull the trash to the curb, it’s like I briefly time travel 30+ years (holy crap) to those sweet spring days.

I want to sit and lean back on the asphalt and feel my palms burn while I watch the girls do a Razor RipStik ballet. (1. Yes, that is a thing that my kids do. They are pretty excellent, and I should probably record them and post it online so that they can be Youtube sensations; and also 2. Why yes, you can buy this thing on Amazon. I swear I’m not going to be irritating about this Amazon thing, but I honestly already would have linked to it, anyway, because people don’t know what a RipStik is, but while I’m at it, what an awesome Easter present–I like it when the Easter Bunny brings things to encourage outdoor activity. But perhaps the Easter Bunny spoils my children and everyone else is making due with jelly beans and sidewalk chalk).

I want to wear a t-shirt to a soccer game.  Last weekend, I kid you not, I was wearing ski pants, my heavy coat, mittens, and a balaclava to watch M’s soccer game. The referees were in shorts–apparently, there are no provisions for long pants in regulation referee uniform. Today’s soccer game was called off because of the increasingly unplayable field.  I’m daydreaming of beautiful soccer game days when J will be happy to come along and just frolic outside. Yes, we’ll have to apply and re-apply sunscreen. Sure, there was that time that I spent an ungodly amount of time checking for and removing ticks from J and her friend. Sssshh, I say to myself. Don’t think of that now. Just think of warm sun on your shoulders.

Incidentally, J just walked upstairs from the basement and said, “Oh my gosh, it’s so snowy! I hate the world!” Apparently she has inherited my bad attitude.